Toon lost out by sacking Big Sam

JAMES Milner feels Newcastle would not be in relegation trouble if they had kept Sam Allardyce as manager.

BIG SAM: James Milner things Newcastle would not be having relegation trouble if they had Sam

Newcastle are on their fourth manager since Allardyce was sacked 16 months ago. Milner was at St James’ Park at the time but joined Aston Villa for £12million and can do the Toon a big favour by beating their relegation rivals Hull.

“If Sam Allardyce had still been at Newcastle, they wouldn’t be in the position they are now,” said Milner, who also has the task of ending Villa’s run of nine league games without a win.

“The way Allardyce came in at Newcastle, he was planning for the long-term. The staff he brought in, he was looking at a bigger picture.

“The plan might have taken three, four, five years. There’s always going to be question marks about the way you play football but first and foremost Allardyce’s job was to get stability. The organisational ideas he had worked at Bolton so why should he change from that? But he never told us to just hit it. We had the players to play and Allardyce wanted us to do that.”

Newcastle have tried Kevin Keegan, Chris Houghton as a regular caretaker manger, Joe Kinnear and now Alan Shearer, their plight worsening with each change to leave Shearer carrying the can.

“There’s been a lot of managers in a short space of time,” said Milner. “That’s not good. The reason I’ve come to Aston Villa is there is stability with Martin O’Neill in charge and that should mean you’ll see the best of me.”

Milner has friends on the Newcastle playing staff and they are desperate for Villa to extend Hull’s plunge down the table tonight.

He said: “I’m sure Newcastle will be desperate for us to win. If we can finish on a high, then we can look on it with a degree of confidence going into the next season.”